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National Geographic Photographer B. Anthony Stewart
Top Brass: The Joint Chiefs of Staff Meet in a Guarded Pentagon Room
Arlington County, Virginia, contains both the Pentagon, where the defense chiefs work, and Fort Myer,
where many of them live. Keeping America strong is the responsibility of Gen. J . Lawton Collins, Chief of
Staff of the Army; Gen. Hoyt S. Vandenberg, Chief of Staff of the Air Force; General of the Army Omar N.
Bradley, Chairman of the Joint Chiefs, and Admiral William M. Fechteler, Chief of Naval Operations.
ing space. Besides, if the worker is not of
high official rank, his parking space is at a
great distance from the building.
To provide close-in parking for 32,000 peo
ple working in one building is impossible, and
more assignments are made than there are
actual spaces. Thus the latecomer gets left,
or illegally uses someone else's space. Parking
violations run as high as 250 a week. Con
sequently, many workers arrive before break
fast to assure parking.
The building has ample eating facilities,
ranging from stand-up snack bars to the pri
vate dining room of the Secretary. There are
four public cafeterias, two for officers, and
dining rooms for top brass and high execu
tives. Many a vacuum jug of coffee is taken
from the snack bars to lunchtime conferences
of generals and admirals. In summer em
ployees enjoy an open-air cafe in the inner
court (page 14).
The Pentagon's vast concourse, with its
many stores and its changing exhibits, is of un-
failing interest to visitors (page 15). Exhibits
which have attracted special attention were of
jet engines, submarines, photography, handi
crafts by enlisted men, and military decora
tions and medals.
Here also is MARS, headquarters of the
Army and Air Force Military Affiliate Radio
System. This station exists to create inter
est in radio and to train hams for military
communications in the event of war.
Floor Plan Easy to Follow
There are many jokes about getting lost in
the Pentagon's labyrinth of rings, corridors,
ramps, and escalators. Actually, a study of
the little map handed out at reception desks
reveals the building's plan as strikingly simple.
The five floors are laid out in five concentric
rings, like those of a tree, lettered A, B, C,
D, E. Ten numbered corridors, radiating
from the inner ring like the spokes of a wheel,
intersect the rings.
Thus, a visitor looking for room 4D620